So last night I went to the rise against concert with Andy and and Mabe(or Cody.. Andy's cousin) and Mabe's drummer (also named Andy.. so he'll be Andy A-last initial- and mine will just be Andy) and Andy A's girlfriend Audry and her little brother Issac I think.. I will now recount the whole thing.. then post the crappy pics I managed to get.
Andy came and picked me up about 530 and we headed down to the great saltair(where the concert was).. that was kinda an adventure in itself.. neither of us had ever driven here.. or been there.. so we were going off mapquest(which was of no help) directions from my dad, Mabe, and an address and looking at a map.. yeah.. luckily it's not that hard to find and we made it there right at 6 when smithtix said the doors were opening. But Mabe Andy A Audry and Issac had all been there for about 15 or 20 minutes so we were right close to the door(general admission first come best standing area kinda thing) well come to find out the doors don't open til 7 and the concert starts at 730. OK that woulda been fine except no one brought jackets cuz.. hello concert? Hundreds of people crammed together? yeah not a good idea. so we're all out there in tee shirts and jackets in November at night. it was cold. but add to that the wind was blowing and it was kinda raining a little. Andy and I are the only ones in that group that have this thing called body fat.. the other 4 are basically skeletons covered in skin.. they were freezing. So Mabe Andy a(who did have a jacket but gave it to Audry.. like a good boyfriend) an Issac all get in this hug with the people standing behind us (also all guys) Andy then goes.. hey wait a minute... and grabs me and Audry in a hug and goes "you guys enjoy your sausagefest over there.. I got the good end of the deal" we were then shoved into the circle of half strangers with Audry and I in the middle and all the guys around the outside and it was a little warmer. I did enjoy being a female at this point.. cuz we were in the middle.. the wind was blocked. the poor guys tho... but it was admittedly better. Mabe kept calling out for more people and by the time the doors really did open at 7 we had prolly 4 more girls at least one or two more guys and we had had 8 or 9 other people come in and then leave. it was so awesome and random.
so we make it inside and we have about half an hour before the concert is set to start. so me Audry Andy A and Andy all hit the bathrooms first. Mabe and Issac hit the shirt stands. there were like 87 stalls in the girls room and 6 girls.. it was nice. audry and I get done and we go out to find Andy A waiting cuz there was a line for the guys bathroom and Andy was still in there.. yes! a line in the guys and none in the girls! I doubt this will ever happen again... it almost merits a blog of its own.. but not quite. anywho so Andy came out and the two of us went to buy shirts. I got a black rise against and a black thrice shirt (cuz I was too lazy to stand in the other line to get alkaline trio or gaslight anthem) and got a grey rise against and a greenish thrice one. By the time we'd both gotten shirts the first band was ready to start. so we went and found a semi decent spot at the back.
the first band was called gaslight anthem. they're kinda an underground not quite broken out band as far as I can tell. They had some good songs and stuff but they were kinda stiff on stage and their lighting show(yes techie coming thru.. deal with it.. thanks a lot Dustin) left something to be desired... but they had some pretty good music.. and were awful. but who pays attention to the first band? I mean come on
Then Thrice come on. I've recently grown to love thrice. Anyone should check them out. They play alternative.. kinda... stuff.. I guess... but they don't swear or anything. the first song everyone should check out(it's on my player on this page) is called The Artist in the Ambulance. It's so awesome! But they came on and did a few songs.. The only two I recognized were the melting point of wax and the sky is falling. I was a little disappointed they didn't play the artist in the ambulance or stare at the sun(prolly their most famous song) but I'll live. they had a great lighting show and they had some energy.. they were playing with each other on stage and addressed the crowd and stuff... it was pretty cool
the next band to play was alkaline trio. They were so much fun to watch!! Matt Skiba-the lead singer and guitar player- is so amazing and fun to watch. Dan Andriano-the bassist- is also really fun to watch! and the two of them interacted with each other and moved around so you could see both of them and addressed the crowd.. quite a bit.. it was really good. Derek Grant-the drummer- had kinda an awkward drum set up that, as Andy put it, 'made him look like a giant playing a monkey's drum set' but they put on quite a show! I didn't know any of the songs since I just started looking up their stuff like 2 weeks ago cuz they were going to be in the show but they played a bunch of good stuff. and their lights were more complex than Thrice's with like moving parts and stuff but it was quite as cool as Thrice's. This is also when the mosh pit started up pretty much. Mabe Andy A Audry and Issac were all up there.. Andy and I hung back cuz.. yeah Grampa Andy has a bad knee(and back and hip and ankle ;) on the off chance he finds and reads this) and I wanted to see rise against before I got knocked out ;) plus I wasn't going to leave Andy.. so we were watching people crowd surf and try and get on stage and get beaten down by security. a few shoes flew and stuff(cuz with all that crashing and stuff what do you expect?) and one shoe flew off and landed right next to Matt onstage while they were playing and after the song he picked it up and said "what is this? some kinda sick joke? it already smells like fish out here we don't want feet odor too" and everyone laughed. it was crazy! Andy and I watched Mabe get up on top the crowd like 3 times during their set. (It's his favorite band.. as far as I know plus he's like 5'11" and like 120 lbs.. he's easy to get up on top and keep up) and we watched him bounce around and have a good old time ;)
Then came Rise Against. I have two of their Cd's and listen to them all the time. This was who I was most excited for.. their set got set up and then the lights all turned off and the whole crowd was chanting "rise rise rise" and the stage filled with smoke and then all of a sudden the lights came on Tim McIlrath-lead singer/guitar jumped out of the smoke singing Drones! The whole crowd was singing and screaming and trying to get pics/video (myself included)! it was so awesome! the lights and colors and sounds and energy! you could just feel it in the air! Then they went right into life less frightening! there was no break or pause really! It flowed together so well. Then they did the intro from chamber the cartridge and Tim talked to the crowd and got us going and whatev and they did that and ready to fall (my favorite song) and injection and state of the union and a whole slew of others-I'm too lazy to list them all.. plus I can't remember ;) The whole time Tim and Joe Principe-bassist/guitar- and Zach Blair-guitar- were moving and playing it up on stage and just so full of energy! it was so cool. there was never really an in between songs.. most of them flowed one to another or they would just play the intro while everything go set up and Tim talked to us or Zach or both. then they all went off stage for a minute.. as soon as they left the crowd started with rise rise rise again.. but it was kinda short lived.. there was a buzz over the crowd cuz we knew something cool was coming up. Then Tim came back out with his acoustic guitar and did Hero of war and swing life away. then they brought back out the electric stuff and finished up. It was awesome! I thought because they just released a new CD it would be mostly stuff from that.. but they only did two or three songs from it. So cool.
Then afterword Andy Mabe and I went to Ihop and had breakfast/dinner and sat around talking til like 230 am! that was prolly one of my favorite parts ;)
All in all it was an awesome concert experience!
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